Estate agent expelled from ombudsman scheme
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Estate and letting agent Global Reality has been expelled from The Property Ombudsman scheme after failing to pay a £1,600 compensation award.
The Property Ombudsman scheme found that the London-based agent had failed to adequately safeguard a tenant’s deposit under a deposit protection scheme, leaving the tenant at a disadvantage.
The tenant involved has since been forced to take her landlord to court in a bid to retrieve the deposit owed to her.
To date, the tenant has not been able to get her money back.
The complaint case began when the tenant moved out early from her rental property.
Once the tenant had moved out Global Reality decided that the tenant would forfeit her deposit because she had moved out earlier than stated in their contract.
The agent then paid the deposit to the landlord in full as it believed the landlord was entitled to the money.
After investigating the complaint, ombudsman Christopher Hamer found in favour of the tenant and ordered Global Reality to pay her a £1,600 compensation award.
The agent was given its final warning to pay by Mr. Hamer on September 16 but failed to respond.
As a result Global Reality has been expelled from The Property Ombudsman scheme, and the Office of Fair Trading has been notified.
Bill McClintock, chief operating officer of The Property Ombudsman, says: “It is regrettable that this company has reneged on its commitment to its clients.
“The Property Ombudsman scheme’s disciplinary and standards committee has made it clear that agents who don’t honour the ombudsman’s decisions will be expelled.”
This is the fourth time this year that the ombudsman has expelled either an estate or letting agent for failing to pay a compensation award.
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